Current avionic displays are typically designed to display different sets of information either on separate displays or only one set of information at a time. This is required because the displays typically display different information in a similar way. For example, typically area fill is used to denote location and spatial extent of phenomena, such as terrain information and weather information. However, it is common for terrain and weather information to be displayed using similar color palettes. For example, both terrain and weather radar may be displayed using the same colors green, yellow and red to represent increasing degrees of threat, safety criticality, or need for flight crew awareness or response. The green color is typically designated as indicating the lowest precipitation rate or least critical of the terrain that currently threatens the aircraft given the current position. Red is typically designed as indicating either the most severe weather or the heaviest precipitation on weather radar or the most critical terrain relating to the position of the aircraft. Moreover, the yellow color is typically designated as indicating weather that has a severity level somewhere between the severity level designated by the red and green colors and a terrain that is in between the terrain indicated by the red and green colors in relation to the position of the plane.
To avoid confusion in displaying weather and terrain information, separate displays are used or the information is toggled between screens of the same display. However, there are limitations to this implementation. For example, with separate screens, the pilot must be able to integrate the weather and terrain information mentally in order to avoid conflicts. This takes time and can be confusing especially when the screen may provide the information in different size grids (scale) or orientation. Moreover, in critical situations, the use of different screens or toggling between screens is detrimental in conveying the needed information in a fast an effective manner.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of conveying different information simultaneously in an efficient and effective manner on a single display screen.